


Miles to go Before I Sleep

by JasonVoorhees



Series: Karaoke Night [2]
Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, just some soft lovin', this one is actual shipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-10 22:10:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20535410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JasonVoorhees/pseuds/JasonVoorhees
Summary: Epilogue to "Do Androids Dream of Spice Girls Karaoke?" Eric stays over at Tony's apartment.





	Miles to go Before I Sleep

By the time they get back to Tony’s penthouse, Eric’s too tired to think about anything but going to bed. He’s not physically tired, because he doesn’t actually _get_ physically tired (which is kind of a perk), but he’s mentally exhausted. He just wants to shut off for the night and get to tomorrow.

Tony lends him some sleepwear (it’s a little baggy on him) and shows him the two extra bedrooms to choose from. They’re sparsely furnished, because Tony doesn’t use them himself. Eric stands in the doorway of the first one, thinking that it doesn’t look very inviting. He can’t even tell if the room’s been used at all. He guesses that most of Tony’s overnight guests are brought over specifically to share his bed.

He’s still standing there, thinking about that for some reason, when Tony pokes his head around the corner and says, “Everything good?”

“It doesn’t look like your guest rooms get used much,” Eric says.

“They don’t,” Tony says. He walks over to the doorway and follows Eric’s gaze. “Guess I haven’t bothered making them cozy, huh.”

“It’s fine,” Eric says. It’s nice enough that Tony invited him over, isn’t it?

Then Tony says, “You can sleep with me if you want.”

Eric freezes. He knows he’s told Tony about his… disinterest in sex. He’s complained about it on occasion, sometimes wishing he could get that desire back. Or not back, since _he_ never had it, but whatever. The point is, Tony knows. He’s trying to figure out how to phrase his next sentence when realization washes over Tony’s face.

Tony immediately puts both hands up. “Uhh, I just mean actual sleepin’. I know you don’t, uh, and you probably wouldn’t with me anyway…”

Eric is absolutely positive he remembers thinking about getting busy with Tony on more than one occasion. That’s probably a conversation for another day. Or for never bringing up, ever. The tried and true O’Grady method of avoiding your problems.

So he just says, “I think that’d be nicer than sleeping in here. I mean, I don’t sleep, but…power down.”

“Kinda the same thing, right?” Tony says. He leads Eric towards the master bedroom.

“I don’t dream,” Eric says, “So it’s not sleep. But I can be woken up from it like a normal person. When I’m in that… state.” Mode is probably the correct term, but he doesn’t feel like calling it that.

They reach the bedroom and Tony climbs right into the bed. It’s king sized, so there’s plenty of room for both of them to not bother the other. “Uh,” Eric says, crawling onto the opposite side, “It might be weird, but sometimes at night I have… um, cooling fans that come on, I think. They can be loud. So just, like… let me know if it bothers you.”

Tony blinks at him across the bed. “So ya snore.”

“…yeah.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll kick ya if ya get too loud.”

A few minutes later the light’s off and they’re both lying down. Eric can hear Tony shuffling around to get comfortable. He doesn’t have to bother with that because being uncomfortable won’t rouse him from his “sleep” mode.

He’s thinking again, and it feels very odd, actually, to be sleeping with someone he hasn’t, well, slept with. The real Eric only shared his bed with people who came over for a good time in the sack first. In fact, he—LMD Eric—hasn’t ever shared a bed with anybody before. He feels strangely chaste.

He should power down before he starts overthinking everything.

Tony heaves a sigh, breaking the silence in the room, and Eric turns to look at him. There’s moonlight coming through the window, and he can see that Tony is looking in his direction as well.

Another moment passes, then Tony reaches out both arms in Eric’s direction and beckons him with his hands. “C’mere, dumbass.”

Oh. Okay. Eric scoots across the bed and gets as close to Tony as he dares, which is pretty close. There’s a foot of space between them.

Tony wraps Eric up in his arms and pulls him the rest of the way over. Eric doesn’t move; surely the exposed metal on his face can’t be all that comfortable pressed into Tony’s chest like this. But Tony only shimmies a bit to get comfortable again, makes a satisfied noise, and says, “That’s better.”

That might really be a conversation for the morning. If he’s brave enough. He closes his eyes and relaxes, listening to Tony’s steady heartbeats. He’s warm, and comfortable. And he decides that whatever this is, whatever it might turn into (and he can hope), he’s going to stay awake a little while longer to enjoy it.

And maybe, hopefully, he won’t run away from this.


End file.
